CEO and Chairman Paxson Communications Corp. (Deceased) – West Palm Beach, Florida
Lowell “Bud” Paxson, CEO and Chairman of Paxson Communications Corporation, is a media industry pioneer whose broadcast career spans more than 40 years. Paxson’s most notable achievement, to date, is the creation of PAXNET, the nation’s seventh broadcast television network, scheduled to launch on August 31, 1998. As the owner of the nation’s largest group of television stations, Paxson Communications has, including pending transactions and letters of intent, 66 full power UHF stations located in 19 of the top 20 markets and 44 of the top 50 markets and, including 7 low power television stations, offers distribution to approximately 63.1 million television households, or 67.6% of the U.S. television households. At its launch in August of 1998, Paxson expects PAXNET to reach 83% of all U.S. TV households, greater coverage at launch than any other network in history. Paxson grew up in Rochester, New York where, as a teenager, he held his first job in radio retrieving records and coffee for DJs. During his four years at Syracuse University he was a radio announcer at several local radio stations. The purchase of a radio station, WACK in Newark, New York, in 1954 marked the beginning of Paxson’s experience as a station owner and provided a forum for Paxson to develop his signature innovative management style and marketing savvy. Recognizing the value of the broadcast airwaves as a direct sales medium, in 1977 Paxson began selling merchandise on a Florida AM radio station. Out of that experience grew the concept for the Home Shopping Network, which Paxson founded in 1982. By 1985, consumer response to electronic shopping was enthusiastic enough for Paxson to take Home Shopping Network national and create a public company, and in 1986, Paxson established the Silver King Communications group of broadcast television stations, growing the group to twelve stations, eight of which are in the top ten U.S. markets.
